


Dying and yelling at Captain America are cherished SHIELD traditions

by annathecrow



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fury being a jerk, Gen, Melinda May is proud, POV Skye, POV Steve Rogers, Protective Skye, Skye Feels, Skye's past (not discussed), Skye-centric, doing the right things, internally screaming Coulson, rating for potty mouth, superheroes who don't listen, the future of SHIELD, the meaning of SHIELD, yelling at national icons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-14 07:52:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2183784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annathecrow/pseuds/annathecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The room was very, very quiet.<br/>“Did she just threaten Captain America?” asked Fitz reverently.</p>
<p>Fury forgot to mention a little detail when handing over the Directorate to Coulson, Captain America is Not Amused, and Skye has had just enough of this crap.<br/>---</p>
<p> He pulled out one of the empty chairs and sat down.<br/>“So. I think we haven’t started on the right foot,” he ventured.</p>
<p>Steve Rogers makes amends and wishes he didn't feel like such a villain for doing the right thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *shrugs* What can I say - I write for fun, and this was fun to write. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Skye hated to say it, but - meeting Captain America sucked.

The common room of the Bus was spacious, for a plane, but filled with the whole team and an angry super-soldier was making it positively claustrophobic.

“...we had a _deal_.” Captain America, sans the costume but not any less impressive, was towering over Coulson with arms crossed and a scowl on his face. “That was my only condition for helping Fury take down HYDRA. SHIELD will go down, and will _stay_ down.”

Coulson was facing Captain with hands folded and a bland smile plastered on his face. It was the one that was designed to say “director of shady secret agency”, but Skye could tell he was internally screaming.

“Sir...”

Skye really wished Fury was here - not so he could explain the situation to Captain America, but so she could kick his shin for setting up Coulson like this in the first place. She ground her teeth. If mister All-American just _listened_ for _one_ damn minute...

“I do not appreciate being played. And, speaking of, faking your own death seems to be a SHIELD tradition, doesn’t it? Maybe you could explain _that_ little performance _Agent_ Coulson?” Captain sneered and _oh_ , don’t you _dare_...

“Shut the fuck up!” someone yelled.

Wait, no. Back up. She did.

_Oh._

Somewhere between this moment and the last, Skye made the three steps and elbowed herself between Coulson and Captain America. She had crossed her arms and stood so close she had to crane her neck to look him in the eye.

“We didn’t know, okay? Fury popped out of the woodwork, saved our asses, made Coulson the Director and disappeared again. He never tells anybody _anything_! What, did you think he told the SHIELD’s biggest fanboy that oh, by the way, Captain America will hate you now? Seriously???”

Skye finally stopped to catch a breath. The room was absolutely silent. The Captain was looking down on her and the realization slowly dawned on Skye.

Oh god. _She just yelled at Captain America._

She frantically looked around, hoping that someone, _anyone_ , will help her out. But, nope: the black guy who came with the Captain was standing behind him, eyebrows raised; Tripp, Jemma and Fitz were wearing matching shocked expressions; Melinda was watching the situation expectantly. Coulson... yeah, still internally screaming.

She looked back to the Captain. He was still scowling at her and, yeah, no, she wasn’t done yet. To hell with this.

“Oh, and just so you know, Captain? Coulson _was_ dead. For _days_. It’s not a pretty story, and it’s not mine to tell. But believe me this: I don’t know what I could ever do to you, but if you even _try_ to make him feel guilty for being alive, I will find out, and _I. Will. Hurt you_.”

The last words she was hissing right into Captain’s face. She slowly lowered herself back to her feet.

The room was very, _very_ quiet.

“Did she just threaten _Captain America?_ ” asked Fitz reverently.

Skye swallowed. The Captain blinked a few times, face blank. Coulson was looking at her, and his face was doing the... _thing_ , and Skye suddenly worried that this is it, this is the moment when AC will finally loose it.

Then, mercifully, the Captain’s companion broke the silence with a chuckle. “Alright, I don’t know how about you, but I really don’t know what the hell is going on anymore. Could we maybe sit down and compare notes or something?”

“That would be wise,” answered Coulson, and yeah, no, false alarm. He took over, herding everyone to the lab, asking Fitz to power up the projector table and Jemma to get out the notes on the GM drug and the Centipede research.

Captain America gave her an inscrutable look, but turned away and headed after the Science Sibs.

Skye hung back with Melinda, glad to be momentarily forgotten. “Did I really just threaten Captain America?” Skye asked her weakly.

Melinda smiled, a sweet smile full of teeth. “You definitely did.” Well, Skye thought, if she was going to die now, at least she could say she impressed Agent May in her life.

(Later that night, over a bottle of whiskey from Coulson’s stash, Melinda would regale the team with stories about the great and cherished tradition of “yelling at Steve Rogers” she got straight from the mouth of Director Carter. AC would thank Skye in a quiet moment, with few words and a smile. And Skye would think: potentially pissing off a national icon? _Totally worth it._ )

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to add a couple hundred words of continuation... it got deep.

Playground wasn’t a large base, but even when he knew where to go, it took Steve a while to find the girl. She wasn’t in one of the unused offices, but instead took over the break room, sprawling over two chairs with a notebook on her lap and a big mug sitting on the table next to her elbow. The surface of the table was covered with a layer of papers, and more were laying in piles on the chairs.

When Steve knocked on the wall next to the doorway, Skye looked up from typing. She stared at him for a moment, then only nodded and turned back to the computer. Steve smiled humorlessly - obviously, she wasn’t going to make this easy for him. He pulled out one of the empty chairs and sat down.

“So. I think we haven’t started on the right foot,” he ventured.

She shot him a quick look. “If you expect an apology, you’re out of luck, because you’re not getting one,” she sniped. She sounded nervous, but was trying her best at not showing it.

Steve smirked. “Fair enough. I am not going to apologize either - not for thinking SHIELD should stay buried for good.”

She gave him an unimpressed look.

“Now, being a jackass about it,” he continued, “that was uncalled for. And I had, in fact, already apologized for that.”

Now, finally, she stopped typing and turned to him. “...did AC put you up to this?” she asked suspiciously.

“Yes,” Steve admitted, smiling at the nickname. “It was his condition for accepting the apology, in fact.”

The soft surprised smile and the way she forcefully wrangled it into a blank expression broke Steve’s heart a little. He didn’t enjoy being yelled at, and he was still angry about being played, but it was hard not to like this girl. She was far from the image of a SHIELD agent he made in the last couple of years. Definitely not the Specialists he used to work with, but she wasn’t like the scientists, - either ambitious sharks or overgrown children. Both too guarded and too genuine to fit into the pattern.

“Alright,” the girl startled Steve from his musings. She put her computer away, and sat up. She took a deep breath and stuck a hand across the table towards him. “Lets try this again. Hi, I’m Skye.”

“Steve Rogers.” He shook her hand, but frowned when he processed what she said. “Um, Skye... who?”

“Just Skye. No last name.” She shrugged, and didn’t explain it further. Steve decided not to push it.

“Nice to meet you, Skye,” he said instead, trying for an encouraging smile.

For a long moment, she just looked at him. He was used to looks of this intensity - from Specialists who assessed his threat level, scientists who saw him as a specimen. Skye, though, was watching him with the same eyes Nat sometimes did: friend, how do you tick?

“Nice to meet you too, Steve Rogers.” she replied finally, giving him a small smile in return.

“Just Steve, please. That would get long after a while,” he laughed.

“Alright, but just if you let Tripp call you that, too.” Skye smirked. “He has a competition running with his extended family.”

“Am I being conned to befriend yet another person?” Steve teased.

She shrugged and smiled, not looking too apologetic. “What can I say. This is my team.”

The way she said “team” sounded more like “family”, and Steve suppressed a sigh. What he really wanted was to just disband this excuse for an agency and call it a day... but he was feeling more and more like a villain for it. These people went through hell together. And even after they learned that the agency they were a part of was rotten to the bone, they decided to stay and fight for it.

“What does SHIELD mean to you?” he asked impulsively.

“Protection,” she replied without hesitation. “Protecting people from things they can’t fight, and not asking for recognition or praise.”

The intensity in her eyes made him look away. Steve knew there was a story - it peeked out around the corners when Coulson explained the Clairvoyant, Centipede, the GM drug. But even if he wanted to know the whole image the more he spoke with Skye, he knew he didn’t earn the right to ask. Right now, he was a tenuous ally at best, an enemy at worst. Steve cursed this modern spawn of Hydra for making his life so complicated. He was a soldier, not a politician; he longed for a clear enemy to fight. Instead, he got this - lies and traitors and shades of gray and allies pitted against each other. The aliens were easier.

“You want to wipe out SHIELD,” Skye said. He turned his eyes back to her, but she was staring at her hands, avoiding eye contact. “But, don’t you think there was a reason Director Carter created it? Yeah, Hydra was running most of it, but it wasn’t all just Hydra, was it? There were good people, doing good things.” She looked up at Steve. There was doubt in her expression, but also determination, and hope. “That’s what we are trying to do. Coulson, May, everyone on the team... we’re just trying to do the right thing.”

Steve sighed and slumped in his chair. “That’s what I am trying to do, too. But I don’t think we can do it with SHIELD. Not like this, not with all the secrets and all the lies.”

“Yeah, actually, not that fond of that part, either,” Skye grimaced. “I just wish... but then, there isn’t much to hide now, is it? The SHIELD files are on the internet. Everyone knows that there is a lot of weird stuff in the world.” She chuckled. “Maybe, I don’t know, we could be a ‘totally obvious agency’ or something.”

Steve smiled and shook his head. “Good thing Fury doesn’t hear you now. I don’t think he would support his agent talking like that.”

Skye shot him a crooked smile. “Not much of an agent,” she laughed at herself. “Do you know I got my badge about a day or two before SHIELD fell? I think I was the last agent... you know, of the old SHIELD,” she added with a pointed look.

Steve took the jab for what it was, but didn’t take the bait. Instead, he stood up and turned towards her. “Well, I think I should go find Agent Triplett. Continue the chain.”

“Go on. I have... work. Stuff.” She gestured at her computer. “See you later, I guess?”

“Probably.” Steve turned to leave, but stopped in the doorway. He turned back to Skye. “Thank you for being honest with me. I appreciate it.”

She squirmed a little. “Well, yeah, I try.” She turned to her computer and started typing again, ending the conversation.

Steve turned away and left. He needed to think about what was said. He didn’t want to change his mind, but he was starting to understand this was yet another shade of gray.


End file.
